OTTAWA—Sun News Network hit the airwaves boasting it would be provocative. But it has sparked some notable controversies.

Balanced debate

Host Krista Erickson’s aggressive interview with dancer Margie Gillis over public funding for the arts in June 2011, sparked a record 6,676 complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. But the council said the exchange, while “somewhat heated,” had produced a balanced debate.

Mother of all insults

In December 2011, Ezra Levant, host of The Source, went after Chiquita Brands International’s decision to avoid oil from Alberta oilsands. He accused the company of being “anti-Canadian bigots” and in Spanish, told a company official, “Ch---- tu madre.” In English that means “Go f--- your mother.” The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council later ruled that the Sun News Network had breached ethical guidelines.

‘Broad brush’

Levant was on the hot seat again in September 2012, after an attack on the Romas in which he said, “these are gypsies, a culture synonymous with swindlers.” Levant later apologized for his remarks, he was “wrong to brand an entire community with a broad brush.”

Phoney citizenship ceremony

Federal immigration officials staged a phoney citizenship ceremony for Sun News Network in October 2011, that featured bureaucrats posing as new Canadians. A department official later said the television network was not aware of the ruse.

Bruce Campion-Smith

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